I hit the shower about 5:30 and headed for the capital of Nevada…yes it is Bellagio! Don’t let anyone tell you any different. The room was busy. It’s expected this time of year. Approximately 1.5M people hit town between Christmas and New Years. They have to go somewhere, I figure they all head for the Capital. Continue reading Combinations of life →

This really isn’t funny – but yet…

The night before Christmas Eve. $4,000-8,000 mixed limit games with one little single draw Deuce to 7, no limit with a $100,000 cap and $1,000 ante from each player, $1,000-$2,000 Blind. That’s a mouthful ain’t it?

The game was four handed, Lyle B. – 1s, Chau – 2s, Doyle – 4s, Phil – 7s. They were playing single draw Deuce when I sat down. The first thing that happened was Phil turned over three face cards and Lyle and Doyle threw him two or three $5,000 chips. Proposition bets. There were so many big chips flying around (sniff…none of them flew to me…sniff) and everyone, except Chau (he wasn’t in the proposition thing), was turning over their hole cards without calling a bet or raise, that it was hard to figure out if the hand was over or if I was supposed to be giving change somewhere.

Doyle and Phil seemed to have a little exchange that belonged only to them (heard they’d been playing for over 24 hours) – they took turns bantering at the other about being ‘the luckiest player…’

In general it was like watching a chip war and no one was going to win. They threw more money across the table in ‘Prop’ bets than I could make in four years. The dealer in front of me, a good, solid, no mistake making dealer, made zip/zero/nothing out of the game. For handling all of those massive amounts of money and doing it well, he got paid minimum wage by the house. Around $3.00 for his time in the box.

I seldom find myself feeling disgruntled over tipping but this leaves me with a giant black spot in my head for the player that always thinks they should have the best of it – comps, great dealers, etc., when they can’t give up anything on behalf of the person that works for tips…especially at Christmas.

I got really lucky, I made $20. From the talk around the room, it’s been more the zip/zero thing for everyone. Maybe I’m just blessed… don’t think I don’t appreciate it, I do.

*****

I hit the $10-$20 blind NLH game to find an old friend from Montana in the 4s. We dealt and played poker together another lifetime ago. He said hello, so did I, he went into a thing about how his girl was in the box and things were looking up. Yup! It worked exactly like that. NOT!

The first hand I dealt him was A-A. He raised it, got called by Q-9 spades. The Flop was 9-little-little. He bet the Flop, got called, Bet $800 on the Turn and got raised – it put him all-in for about $700 more, and a cute little 9 slipped off on the River.

It was pretty much a gagger although he never flinched or made any comments. I wanted to throw up for him. He didn’t clam up or go ‘all stoney’ on me which was really great on his part. He bad played another hand about fifteen minutes later and that cost him a chunk. When I got pushed, I looked at him and said, “Just like old times!”

I was below his game, waiting for the dealer to finish the hand in my next table and got to visit with him for a minute. He’s coming for Christmas dinner – hell, that’s today!

I have to run. I have a date with a little sweetie that’s eight months old…his mom and dad are coming too. I’m the chief cooker, taxi woman, and grandma of the year so I’d better get a few hours sleep before the whirlwind begins. Merry Christmas!

The $2-5 blind NLH games are a riot. The first one I dealt almost turned into a war with me and a couple of players before I dealt the first hand. One of them had zip/zero chips in front of him and $145 for his re-buy was on the table. I told him he had to buy $200. He argued that he’d been playing. I said it still was a $200 buy-in. He then queried the table because obviously I didn’t know what I was talking about. It went on a for a few more minutes as I got a fill. He did pull out $200 and the Chip Runner raced off to get his chips but he still argued with me, a friend of his took his side, that he could/should then go all-in for $199 and hold back $1 so he could buy short. I told him he couldn’t do that. They argued that he could. I got lippy, “Ok. This is my first day and you guys obviously know more about it than I do. But if you try to do that, I will call for a decision.”

Funny part of it was that the woman in the 1s believed it was my first day…even telling me so about 20 minutes later. I don’t think it was because of my dealing skills – she just couldn’t imagine anyone saying that if it wasn’t true. Too funny.

The friend of the guy that wanted a short buy-in, we managed to solve our differences within a few minutes and I found out that he’s a dealer also.

The 9s was jamming everything, Asian, have dealt to him before and he can be pretty hard sounding. In this hardness, it’s his cover, he is having prankish fun and he’s really not mean although he does reach a limit when he’s losing and will snort and bark. He did end up barking at me and I called the Floorman. He went broke in the hand and left only to appear in the $10-20 blind NLH a little bit later. Before he left us, he was heads-up, facing an all-in bet which would bust him. He thought about it for a minute or longer and ended up turning one of his cards face up to get a reaction from his opponent. No reaction. He called the bet and went bust.

Another player in the 4s pointed out that he thought the hand was dead when a card was shown, he added that it was in most rooms he played in – including The Mirage. I stated that to my knowledge, as long as the play was heads-up, cards could be shown but I would get a decision. I did. The decision was that it was legal in heads-up play.

There was a helluva lot going on in this game. Lots of noise, action, reaction, and I was thankful to get pushed into a sedate little $30-60 Holdem game.

*****

My next game was $15-30 Holdem. The 3s had obviously never lost a hand in his poker playing career until I sat down in the box. About the third hand I dealt, he went heads-up with the 1s and lost. She tipped me and he snorted, “Did I tip you?”

I didn’t even look up or acknowledge this idiot question. I would have liked to have said, “You should! I could put your money to a lot better use than you are.”

He won a few pots and then towards the end of my down, he lost another one. “You are the kiss of death!”

I pushed the pot and as I pulled the deck together and shuffled, I gave him direct eye contact. He looked away. I wanted to fall out of my chair laughing but I kept a straight face. After all, you players that know what’s going on really need people like him in the game.

*****

Previous post – the ‘blonde’ – name is Carmel. I get a charge out of her and the havoc she seems to create in the games. It’s not as if she sets out consciously trying to create it yet there it is, the big Havoc Whirlwind, spinning around her when she steps into the poker room. Perhaps the whirlwind is a manifestion from her subconscious and only appears in the poker room or at the table, but from the way she carries herself and acts, I would guess it jump starts as soon as WAKE UP hits her senses.

I was in my third $2-5 blind NLH game and she was in the first one I dealt. A seat opened in my game and she was supposed to move into it (must move game).

The twist? A good looking black guy, (he was the one that was offered $50 to bust her last night – see previous post), was in my game. She didn’t want to play with him at her table. She went to the Floor Person.

The guy in our game told us why. She had tried to call Security on him on the previous night. She called him an asshole, he called her a bitch.

She thought he should be removed because of that…the ‘b-e-itch thang’. Of course calling someone an asshole is always ok. The Floor Person must have told them both to drop it because Security never made the scene.

The Floor Person, on this night, did let her slide until a seat opened in the other main game so she wouldn’t be forced to play in the same game with him – that’s not unusual if someone is really in conflict with another player.

After I moved to my next game, I could hear them laughing and joking in the game behind me, “I want security…”

I’m sure she could hear them because she has moved to the table in front of them and most of the spin had to be for her benefit.

There’ll be another episode. That little Havoc Whirlwind isn’t about to lay down and whisper the last, soft sigh of a spent breeze.

All the company finally went back where it came from and my home away from home has settled down. It’s back to normal. In other words…Tournament Time is over! Everyone seems to be in tournament mode. Not just the players, but every casino in the world offers them. I wonder how long the pockets of the players can handle all the money that goes into tournaments and never returns to live play. Color me stupid here but how can all those millions in satellites, tournament buy-ins, etc., just keep being pushed into one big pot and split up between 20 or 30 players and still leave any gristle for the daily grinders? Sure they’re exciting if you win but how many can you afford to slam money into without taking a beating on your daily expenses and bankroll? Ok…’nuff said on that subject.

One $4,000-8,000 Mixed game on table 1 with all the usual suspects and a few other high limit games on ‘top’ but luckily for me, it wasn’t in my line-up. I started in the part of the room that’s just grin and giggle, no frills, no chills, and away I went. Lots of ‘friendlies’. No glares, no cards flying at my fingers, no one knew the house rule better than me, no one said a harsh word…wow! Love it!

*****
I dealt four $2-5 blind NLH games tonight. In the second game, a discussion started about a young, blonde woman that played and talked the action through every hand. One of the players told me I would know her if I saw her. I couldn’t put a face on any particular blonde that I’d dealt to in NLH. Sure enough, in the fourth one I dealt, she was in my game. The person that had started the conversation earlier, looked over from the table next to me and motioned that ‘this was the one’. I didn’t know her. But I definitely won’t forget her.

She wasn’t a ‘hottie’, by Vegas standards, but she definitely had her own arrogant charm. She also had some kind of war going on with most of the table because (in her absence) I was told if the 9s busted her, a player from the game behind us would give him an additional $50 and I would get 10% of that. I said I’d just deal and leave that alone.

She had a special war going on with the 4s. I’ve dealt to him before but he’s not a regular. He appears to fancy himself as being a great player and in control of the action at all times. They ended up heads-up in one hand. Truthfully I can’t remember how the action went because it was just another poker hand to me…the end of it was what set it apart. I believe he bet $25 and she raised him a $100 or so. He thought about it for quite some time, never looking at her, just staring at the board and then down the table. He finally folded with something like, “You think you’re some kind of Ivy Leaguer.”

She calmly replied, “I think you can blow me.”

I almost spit. The 7s couldn’t stop laughing. When the table started to twitter, I said, “Come on kids. Let’s just play poker.”

They did.

I sailed out the door to the escape hatch a few hours later without hitting a snag on a hidden coral reef. Sweet! There’s no place like home.

Another year has escaped. I planned on doing so much more in that small time frame of my life. Isn’t that the way it is? We are always behind, always trying to catch up, always striving to gain more than we have, and want more than we gain…it’s a treadmill. We may not be in a cage but we are still on a treadmill.

I do, however, stop to listen to people around me, look at the sun and moon, yearn for the fresh night air and cool breezes of the desert, cherish the times I leave the electric city behind and head for the pure, spiritual release of the wilderness, love quite easily, find humor in almost all situations (if I didn’t, some of them are so sad I couldn’t bear them), always try to find the bright spot in a gloomy picture, and pray for peace on Earth and good will to all of us – during the entire year – why save it for the holidays?

I believe every day of our life should be a holiday. If we see something that a friend would enjoy, get/give it to them right now, tomorrow may never get there and they may not be around when you decide it’s the right time.

My list of “do’s” for the year:

• Tell important people in your life that you love them.
• Appreciate what you have.
• Sprinkle kindness and affection on everyone you come in contact with, even if you have a hard time accepting them as they are. Perhaps you need to look at the world through their eyes before you judge why they behave the way they do.
• Build a better you – we can all use a little work in restructuring our lives and thoughts. That doesn’t only apply to the mind, it applies to exercise. Exercise knocks the wrinkles out of your brain and helps you relax with what’s going on around you.
• Give up the past and use it only as a guideline, try not to revisit it too often other than a gentle nudge to know you’re moving in the right direction.
• Enjoy the pain of learning – it helps you REALLY appreciate life when it’s good.
• Forgive. The first person you need to learn to forgive is you – that opens the doorway to everything else.
• Step outside yourself and take a look. If you don’t understand you, how could you possibly understand someone else.
• Always question. Keep an open mind and never quit searching for answers.
• Never look at a failed endeavor as defeat, use it as a stepping stone to progression.
• Last and most important – jump off the treadmill.

The end of another year, the beginning of another time – may we all enjoy every moment of it!

Damn it! I forgot how great a glass of wine tastes. Last night I had the urge, tonight I bought the bottle. Umnhhh…y-u-m-m…y-u-m! Thank you, God, for those luscious little grapes and little grape stompers…yes, there’s a village of little grape stompers that live under the Earth. They have magic feet. This wine wasn’t created by any of mankind’s machines in sterile kitchens. It was created during a full moon for a special child of the Earth that would really appreciate it. And I am.

It’s Christmas time again. I’d rather spend all of my days out exploring the world around the edges of Las Vegas right now than thinking about the overbearing, obnoxious symbol that Christmas has become. Which is exactly what I’m going to do on Sunday. I have a hike planned at Sloan Canyon AKA Petroglyph City. There are over 1,300 petroglyphs in a small section of canyon about 12 miles out of Vegas. You have to see it to truly appreciate it – been there – done that – going back again…and again…and again.

On another note – Neil Diamond, Hot August Night, I finally figured out who the ‘tree people’ were. He’s singing his heart out to me right now – a Bose system really is incredible, not to take anything away from Neil, so is he – but the ‘tree people’ had bothered me for quite some time, as in years. I wasn’t a hippie, I’m not a ‘harley girl’. I was straighter, older, and more disciplined before I hit 40 (just the reverse of most people) and a lot of it just slipped right on by. I snagged it tonight. One more of life’s questions has been answered…hey, it might be the wine.

*****
On the poker front. I had to edit the last post about Sam. Marty sent me an email and I told him to chill out and have a glass of wine. Just kidding. Anyway, it’s an edit.

*****

I stopped in the poker/pit area at work tonight as the final seven battled down to the final six. It was packed with spectators, staff, security, etc. I didn’t stop to look at the tournament table, I went to check on my friends, the photographer and bloggers from the WPBT. They work Bellagio’s tournaments and spend hours putting everything together. The photos of the WPBT can be seen here.

*****

One of the hands I dealt during the tournament:

T.J. Cloutier, playing a Super Satellite, Limit Holdem. He’s the BB. One off the Button raises. T.J. calls – heads up. Everyone folded to the raiser so T.J. knew it would be heads up.

The Flop was something like Jack – 6 – 2. All unrelated.

T.J. checked, raiser bet, T.J. check raised, raiser called.

Turn a 7. T.J. bet, raiser called.

River a 4. T.J. bet, raiser called.

T.J. turned over 7-4 offsuit. Raiser showed A-A.

If you want lessons from T.J. – he charges $1,000 a day.

Ke-rhist!!!! Where’s the wine.

*****
Anyone that is a member of the Clan/forum, is eligible for a January Clan Poker Tournament to be held at the Plaza. NLH – buy in $100. The 10th at 6 p.m. Visit this page, send Tanya a PM if you’re going to attend. We need a head count…in advance. Jon (clan founder) has put $100 bounty on himself. I say we bust his ass.

C U there!

Isn’t it great when you meet people, become friends, and they put up with you? They even go out of their way to make you happy…thanks Wayne. My latest hiking adventure can be found here. Once you arrive at the page, please click on “Lake Mead”, then “narrows hike with water in the wash 12/12/04”. This hike was quite unique in the respect that it’s the first time I’ve found water running in the wash. AND we saw a huge scorpion. I knew there were scorpions in the poker room but this is the first time I’ve found one in the desert.

*****

I finally dealt real poker games, the ones with ordinary people playing liveable limits instead of all those fantasy movie star games that are higher than the moon and only played by the rich and famous or the rich and pros or the not rich think they’re pros. Almost seven hours of bliss, nothing higher than $30-60 even though the room was busy as hell, I missed all the big budget, mortgage your house, you’d better win a tournament to play them type of games. That was Monday night.

Tuesday night I dealt three tables of the tournament and then got out to play. Got a seat in a new $4-8 game, won the 2nd and 3rd hand – huge pots – visited with the player next to me, Will from an earlier post, and got picked up and sent back into the line-up. That was a simple night too…no high limit games.

Last night I bounced around a little. Dealt a few hours, played for an hour, got ready to deal again and found out I didn’t have to so I bounced back into the player’s seat.

While I was dealing a $4-8 game, Sam (he was in the game the night that Lupe called me all those strange names and she had to leave) and his friend Marty were at my table. Marty was in the 10s and full of questions. He and Sam told me the dealer before me had exposed the Ace of Spades. It would have been Marty’s card. They both said the dealer asked Marty if he wanted to keep it, even though the table had seen it. Marty said the dealer seemed to be amazed that Marty wanted a replacement card for the Ace.

I’d have to believe the dealer was jiving them. But then I’ve seen so many dealers do so many different STUPID things that it’s entirely possible.

The boys in this game were pretty funny. Sam flopped/or turned a 10 high flush. He also had a pair of 10’s with a 10 on the board. The last card brought another flush card and after the bet was called on the River, Sam told his opponent, “A pair of 10’s,” and turned over the Flush.

***Begin edit. I just got an email from Marty explicitly explaining Sam’s happy go lucky, always have a good time, boisterous and joking, even if he’s losing, attitude at the poker table and in life in general. This post about Sam was never meant to show him as a grouch or a jerk.

Perhaps he turned over the flush AS he called his hand as, “A pair of tens.”

It would have been awfully close…the statement and the act, there was no long drawn out pause.

Everyone was laughing and kibitzing, EXCEPT the opponent that immediately took a walk. The ‘boys’ were ribbing Sam about needling the player with the statement.

Marty…so did you!

Shit happens at the table. In general, everyone was having fun. If I had been the opponent, I would have taken it as a needle but it’s not the end of life as we know it on this planet so I would have continued to play the damn game for hell’s sake.

***End Edit.

His opponent immediately took a walk and Sam got the Raspberry for needling his opponent by telling him he had a pair of 10’s instead of a flush. Sam tried to explain that he thought the last flush card beat him but the ‘boys’ weren’t going for it. Neither was I but I was the dealer so it didn’t matter.

Marty was wondering if he would make it…not in the poker game…into the Diary. Yup!

I got into a $15-$30 holdem game last night in which Joe was in the 8s. He’s a great tipper, makes a bit of noise and is definitely his own fan club. I get a kick out of him in the game but he hates the rules and he gets away with a lot because he does tip.

I – on the other hand – stick with the rules. Sometimes I wonder why. When no one else does it, my job is so much more difficult.

Joe’s chips were in a rack. I smiled at him and asked, “Joe are you leaving soon?”

He – knowing what I meant – turned to the guy next to him and queried, “What did she say?”

The guy repeated my question. Joe said he knew what I asked and knew his chips weren’t supposed to be in the rack but I was the only dealer that it bothered. No other dealer, supposedly in hours, had a said a word. He did take them out of the rack.

The next few hands, Joe folded as soon as the 7s reached for chips, causing the player behind Joe to fold. I cautioned Joe on waiting until the 7s had completed his action before Joe released his hand.

Joe looked at me, “One more rule, Linda, and I’m out of here.”

I wanted to snort, “Do your talking walking, Buckwheat!” but instead I patiently explained, “If he intends to raise and two or more players fold behind him before his chips are out, he cannot raise.”

Two players agreed with me…yipppeeee! Joe apologized to the 7s but never looked at me. He got called for a table change and as he was leaving, I gave him my best smile and said, “Have a good night, Joe!”

After Joe left, the 10s was chuckling with me, “Wouldn’t it be funny if he moved right into your next game?”

I told him that was Murphy’s Law of Poker Dealing. If I have a problem with a player, I’m going to deal to them every night for the next week and some times two or three times in a night because they game shift. All in all, the down was fun and Joe wasn’t upset with me but he was serious about the ‘rule’ thing.

If everyone did their job, mine would be easier.

Just as Cardz Law of Dealing Poker dictates, I dealt a $500-1,000 game Mixed Game (with the 3s from the last post – in which he called me ‘a liar’). When the night started, I thought I’d never make it to Table 12, but as luck (bad luck) and reroutes work, there I was along about 1 a.m. The 3s was in the 6s and six of the players were Asian – including the 6s. He finally got involved in one hand, late in my down, small pot, and lost.

He looked at the 5s and said, “Look at her face, it looks like a mask,” as he motioned to me. The 5s looked at me while the 6s continued, “She’s my favorite dealer.”

Without missing a beat, I looked at him and exclaimed, “You’re my favorite player! What a coincidence.”

The 5s almost fell off of his chair laughing. The 6s loosened up then. He won a couple of pots and threw me $1 each time. Whoooopeeee! It’s Big Buck City here in these big games. But best of all, he decided to get off my case.

*****

Interested in Bellagio’s $25,000 Heads-up Limit Holdem Tournament? Sixteen players signed up. If the number of contestants were ‘odd’, the draw would have given a contestant a ‘buy’. The tournament started yesterday. I dealt to Barry and Jennifer – Jennifer clearly had the chip lead during my down, and to Bruno and Jeff – they were in the first hour when I sat down. This page will give you a little clearer picture of how it works.

*****

Color me gone…have to go entertain myself with the life of a poker dealer.